Martin Garbus

Disclaimer: I received this book from GoodReads as part of the First Reads program.

This is a book about a part of American history that I wasn't familiar with, either through my inattention or under reporting in my part of the country at the time. It begins describing a group of Cuban exiles called "Brothers to the Rescue", who fly private planes between Florida and Cuba, allegedly to spot people who are trying to defect from Cuba and help them. In reality, they were trying to provoke the show more Cuban government by flying into Cuban airspace and dropping anti-Castro leaflets. Eventually, the Cuban government gets tired of it, and two of the planes are shot down by military jets. This, of course, provokes an outburst from the Cuban ex-patriot community in Florida. The US government arrests a group of low-rent Cuban spies and, incredibly, charges them with with not only espionage, for which they are absolutely guilty, but the murder of the pilots, which is blatantly ridiculous. After a scam trial, the five are sentenced to long prison sentences. The leader of the group is sentenced to two life sentences. The book is written by the lawyer who took up the case many years later, and describes his attempts to get the prisoners freed. Despite many, many roadblocks, which are described well in the book, he eventually gets the remaining three prisoners released from jail so that they can return to Cuba. This is an interesting story, well written, about a part of American history that occurred during my lifetime, but which I knew nothing about. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in recent American history (they were released during the Obama administration) and anyone interested in Cuban-American relations. show less